Pilot

Finished Better Call Saul S5 and just when I thought it was better than BB - I had the pleasure to rewatch this incredible pilot. As I've learned more about script structure I can safely say that this is maybe the best pilot I've ever seen. Most pilots are slow and clunky - this one was absolutely masterful from start to finish. It's basically a short movie. Cranston is magnificent as Walter and the whole show just opens with such a bang. Breaking Bad will go down as top five best shows ever made and the Breaking Bad universe maybe the best series ever.

Walter White and Jesse Pinkman are an interesting combination. Bryan Cranston and Aaaron Paul give us a hit of some outstanding chemistry (no pun intended), and this episode was a perfect beginning for one of TV's greatest shows.

Walter White is a 50 year old over-qualified high school chemistry teacher. He discovers one day while working at his second job ( washing cars, embarrassingly), that he has 3rd stage Lung Cancer. He goes on a ride along with his brother Hank, a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent to bust a methamphetamine lab. This is where all the action begins, with the end of the episode being iconic: Walt, in his underwear with a gun pointing at the screen.

How one situation leads to another is incredible in this show. In the opening episode, the set-up for astounding character development is laid: it followed through magnificently in the following seasons.

Bryan Cranston gave an Emmy-winning performance for this episode. His performance was a visceral revelation, and Aaron Paul is outstanding as Jesse Pinkman. This show is one to binge-watch, and due to account of this episode, one to admire forever.

The image of a show's main character in the middle of the road, without pants, ready to shoot it out with the approaching police . . . that's some ace cliffhanger material. Yet it's the first thing anyone sees!

An exhilarating hour of television, this pilot deals effortlessly with the unenviable amount of setup that "Breaking Bad" requires. Portrait of a man beaten down by mediocrity suddenly liberated by a cancer diagnosis, Walter White is the guy you feel sorry for, but you also desperately want the guy to snap out of his suburban malaise and grab life by the balls (played with no shortage of intensity by Bryan Cranston). This intro lays out the conflict and colorful supporting characters and laces it with excellent dark humor. As fun as it is to see this guy at the end of his rope, it also demands that you return for next week.

I've been telling people for years to ignore the hype and just give the first episode a shot. And for good reason; it's one of the best pilots I've ever seen.

9/10

Breaking Bad is one of the greatest television series to have graced our planet, and you can see hints of that from this pilot episode, which very well may be the greatest television pilot of 2008. What I really liked is how the show used its dark subject matter, dealing with subjects such as terminal cancer and drug abuse, as well as murder and creating a meth lab. As evidently seen in this episode, Vince Gilligan decides to use dark humor to combat these subjects. For example, when Walt learns he has cancer, he absent-mindedly points out the mustard on the doctor's jacket. It was one of the few quite funny scenes. The episode begins and ends with a fast pace. The story needs to be told, so definitely pay attention so you don't lose any details. The cinematography is gorgeous, as evident during the scenes in the New Mexico desert.

Now as the plot goes, it's a rather simple one. But the plot is executed in such wild ways in the episode. We are already told the plot twist within the first five minutes, so all we get for the rest of the episode is the events leading up to the twist. Anyhow, we meet Walter White who is a high school chemistry teacher just celebrating his 50th birthday. Life goes south when he finds out he has terminal lung cancer. He decides to recruit one of his former students, a druggie named Jesse Pinkman to help him start a meth lab, so he can provide for his pregnant wife and his crippled son after he is deceased. When Jesse puts him in contact with one of his distributors, Walt and Jesse fear they may be too far in up their sleeve.

This show introduces some rather interesting characters. There is Walter White, who is played by the amazing Bryan Cranston. Cranston is known for his comedy, but he does a great job handling drama and in particular, the average-looking, intelligent man. Anna Gunn plays Skylar, Walter's rather suspicious wife. She does a good job in playing the confused part, while Walt is out and about with his criminal activities. R.J Mitte does a rather good job as Walter Jr, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Aaron Paul does a good job as Jesse Pinkman, although his character is just a tad whiny. There is just a funny scene involving him and the neighbor while a drug bust is going on. Dean Norris does a wonderful job as Walt's DEA brother-in-law, Hank Schrader. He seems to be the witty member of the family. Though not much screen time is involved, Betsy Brandt plays Hank's wife, Marie.

So this pilot episode ends up being one of the better pilots in recent memory, thus beginning television's golden age, which we are currently in the midst of. This episode is not only full of action and how it sets the stakes high from the get-go, but it also is a funny episode. Some favorite scenes of mine involve Walt flipping out at his surprised car wash manager, and Walt protecting his son from bullies at a clothing store. Although Walt's first attempt at meth ends in failure, he is convinced that road will still go on.

My Grade: A

'Breaking Bad' is one of the most popular rated shows on IMDb, is one of those rarities where every season has either been very positively received or near-universally acclaimed critically and where all of my friends have said nothing but great things about.

Very few shows in recent memory had me so hooked from the very start that before the week was over the whole show had been watched, especially when for a lot of shows now airing watching one episode all the way through can be an endeavour. 'Breaking Bad' had that effect on me, and its reputation as one of the best, consistently brilliant and most addictive shows in many years (maybe even ever) is more than deserved in my eyes. Its weakest season is perhaps the first season, understandable as any show's first season is the one where things are still settling.

Actually everything is established remarkably from the very start, but once the writing and characterisation becomes even meatier the show reaches even higher levels.

"Pilot" though has to be up there with one of the finest pilot episodes for any show ever, and there are a good deal of great ones.

Visually, "Pilot" is both stylish and beautiful, with photography and editing that are cinematic quality and put a lot of films today to shame, where there are a lot of visually beautiful ones but also some painfully amateurish looking ones. The music always has the appropriate mood, never too intrusive, never too muted.

The writing for "Pilot" is a fine example of how to have a lot of style but also to have a lot of substance. The dialogue throughout is thought-provoking and tense, while also have a darkly wicked sense of humour and heart-tugging pathos. The story texturally rich, intimate, tense and layered, with the pace of it consistently deliberate but taut. The direction couldn't be better.

Can't say anything bad about the acting. Bryan Cranston is phenomenal as one of the most fascinating anti-heroes, or even of any kind of character, in either film or television. Aaron Paul has never been better and Anna Gunn is affecting. The characters are compelling in their realism.

Overall, a couldn't be better start for a show that got better and better. 10/10 Bethany Cox